CARBONDALE, Ill. (WJPF) – An SIU math professor has been found guilty of hiding a foreign bank account.
60-year-old Mingqing Xiao of Makanda was convicted last week of three counts of making a false or fraudulent statement to the IRS on his tax returns and one count of failure to file a report of a foreign bank account.
Federal prosecutors say Xiao opened a bank account in China in 2016 and received monthly deposits into the account from Shenzhenalo University in Shenzhen, China. Additional money from other Chinese sources were also placed into the account. From 2016 – 2020, Xiao had deposited over $100,000 into the account.
According to the U.S. government, taxpayers are required to report the existence of any foreign bank account on their federal income tax returns and individuals with funds in foreign accounts totaling more than $10,000 at any time during a given year are required to file documents with the Treasury Department.
Two additional counts of wire fraud against Xiao were dismissed and Xiao was found not guilty of a false statement charge. Those three charges were all related to an alleged fraud in connection with a grant Xiao obtained from the National Science Foundation.
Mingqing Xiao will be sentenced on August 11. The charge of making and subscribing false income tax returns provides for a sentence of up to three years in prison. The charge of failing to file a report of a foreign bank account provides for a sentence of up to five years in prison.
